Tessa
Tessa, labeled The Big Shot, is a contestant on Total Drama Genesis. She is a member of the Fizzled Fireworks. Biography While coming from a privileged family, Tessa had a rough childhood. Tessa skipped a few grades and was severely bullied by her older classmates, who told her she wasn’t special and wouldn’t amount to anything. Tessa decided to prove them wrong. Tessa began Olympics training for gymnastics. A while ago, she was able to graduate high school early before her former classmates. The next year Tessa would take gold at the Olympics and became an American hero! Unfortunately, this isn’t where Tessa’s story ends. While taking online college classes and doing more gymnastics training, Tessa has appeared on a lot talk shows where she’s delivered speeches or talked about her rough past. She’s been an advocate for anti-bullying and supported many fundraisers. More focused on however, are some comments she made that been seen as…’controversial’ to the say the least. Tessa has criticized fellow athletes, celebrities and various minorities or other groups over various issues and policies. Now, Tessa’s image has been split between an American hero and a conceited celebrity. Tessa joined the show to escape the negative publicity surrounding her and try out a new kind of challenge; along with hopes of meeting new people instead of the ‘popular’ people she feels she’s been surrounded by for too long. Total Drama Genesis Tessa was the sixth contestant to arrive and while many of the other contestants were excited to meet the famous athlete, Tessa wasn't excited to meet 'meathead jocks' as she called them. Later, she quickly butted heads with Seraphina over her tarot cards, leading to a very vocal argument. On the bus to the hotel Tessa made enemies with Lita, calling her inappropriate for her outfit. Later Lita tried to apologize to Tessa for the argument, but Tessa refused and leading to Lita to promise to eliminate her. Tessa ended up roommates with Seraphina, but forced her out since she didn't want to room with the psychic. Before the challenge, Tessa was placed on the Fizzled Fireworks. Tessa did well in her trial, a race around a track. During the sled race, Tessa yanked Melissa's ponytail, causing Melissa to drop their mascot and resulting in the Eagles losing. The Fireworks won the right to eliminate the first contestant, and Tessa voted for Bethany due to her hatred of 'popular jocks'. Tessa ended up getting in a conflict with Xidorn, who was angry for her treatment of Bethany. Tessa didn't understand why a fellow outsider like Xidorn didn't see her reasoning for eliminating Bethany. Tessa continued to perform well in challenges yet the Fireworks lost the sporting event. Pascal had decided Tessa would a perfect scapegoat to compete against in the finale and tried to make an alliance with her. While Tessa tried to refuse, she realized she lacked options and agreed to work Pascal...for now. Pascal convinced the team to vote for Jasper, who no one remembered after Tessa 'apologized' to everyone. The plan worked as everyone, but Lita and Jasper himself, voted for Jasper. After seeing how close Ness, Lita and Seraphina were becoming, Tessa decided she had to eliminate Lita next. Tessa tried to convince Zipporah to join forces with her, but Zipporah refused on the grounds that Tessa is negative and mainstream. During the challenge, Tessa ended up being the survivor of the initial invader attack along with Zipporah, Riley, Griswold, and Ignacio. Tessa was shocked to see how Griswold and Ignacio were nice and loyal each other as friends. Tessa and Riley ended up bonding and Riley gave her the nickname 'Sweet Tea'. The two ended up kicking alien butt in the challenge, along with Griswold and Ignacio later on, but failed to defeat the alien queen. It looked as though Tessa would turn a new leaf... ...until she bumped into Lita in the hallway. Tessa proceeded to insult the knockout, particularly Lita's family. Instead of inspiring her rage however, she caused the girl to cry. Tessa felt guilty a little bit but convinced herself Lita was lying. Knowing she was the biggest target, Tessa revealed her plan. She had found the Eagles' immunity flashdrive. While only an Eagle could use it, Tessa had a found loophole; an Eagle can use it on another person even if its another team's elimination ceremony. She had given it to Kalino to use to save her and eliminate Lita... ...but Kalino betrayed her and kept it for himself, allowing Tessa to be eliminated. While waiting for the Public Transportation of Losers, Riley came out and said she thought they were friends for a moment and wished her the best, giving her a sweet tea. While Tessa intitally rejected it, she ended up taking the tea... Audition Tape A girl with light brunette hair sits in a rather fancy room, and wears a golden medal; the girl smiles and waves at the camera. “Hey Total Drama,” the girl greets. “You may recognize me as a gold medal winner at the Olympics for Gymnastics. At least that’s where I hope you recognize me. But you probably know about the TV interviews as well.” The Olympian sighs and flops on the back of her bed. “I’ve been in a lot of heat recently for sharing my opinions. Whatever; I want to get away from that for awhile, and I think Total Drama is the perfect place.” The girl jerks back up with a smile bright on her face. “I’ve seen some of the original and I like the message it shows; upon those cocky bullies being defeated by the nerds, the outcasts, the underdogs. I think Total Drama is exactly what I need in my life. So consider me; I promise not to disappoint.” Trivia *Initially, Tessa was the second member eliminated from the Fizzled Fireworks and third contestant eliminated overall. She received one cup of coffee overall. She returned later however. *Tessa's name was chosen due to sounding similar to testy, fitting her personality. *Tessa's background as a child prodigy and Olympic athlete was meant to make her a strong competitor (giving a reason why she wasn't eliminated first); Tessa won, placed high or did well in most challenges she participated in. *Tessa mentions having a friend whose an ice skater; I imagine this as Tessa's only friend and one of her few redeeming traits. *Tessa's introductions (particularly her shades) and some of her comments were meant to draw parallels to Heather. **Tessa was constructed as a foil to Heather; both see things in a stereotypical high school social hierarchy yet Tessa identifies with being an outsider. *Tessa's elimination was meant to be a deconstruction of characters that are horribly mean yet never get voted off. Tessa was designed to have a lot of those characters' bad qualities yet have consequences for it; having little control of the game and eliminated almost unanimously. **Tessa's challenge skills and scapegoat possibilities were a parody of reasons other contestants have been spared in Survivor. *Tessa's character has gone through some of the most changes since the initial idea; **Originally she was a character named Becky labeled as The Critic; the daughter of TV censors and be livid about Total Drama's 'inappropriate' nature. She was meant to be a reflection of biased and not constructive critics, but I felt the character was too unredeemable and annoying. **Tessa was changed from Becky to be a more relatable character. She was originally meant to be more politically controversial (Based on Donald Trump's presidential campaign) and express stereotypical views from the left and right. After the first three chapters I scrapped that to avoid being too political. **Tessa originally had a harsher elimination; she would have caused Lita to have a bigger break down, causing everyone to decide to forfeit the challenge (a playground obstacle course) to vote her off. Tessa would've tried to do the challenge herself and almost win but lose, have her head shaved and be voted off. I changed it because I wanted Tessa's character to be more positive. *Tessa's story was meant to be about how victims can become like their bullies and how outsiders can be bad people as well. Ultimately, I think that story needed more focus and a different way to be told so it was shortened. **Tessa's opinions about some of the other contestants were to be a reflection on how they could come across on first impressions and or being portrayed on other shows (i.e. a jerk jock, temptress and mean girl, wannabe, hot egomaniac, fraud psychic, etc.) Category:Rhonda's Characters Category:Total Drama Genesis